From a plugged-in reader living in Mission Bay two years ago:
I think it is comparatively safe as compared to lot of other neighborhoods in the city and I was seriously considering buying a condo in the area (and still might). I think it’s very easy to hit all the hotspots in the city from this neighborhood either by Muni (Bus & Transit) or cab. Overall I would say it’s a nice neighborhood and I see it only improving from here on.
From the Chronicle with respect to Mission Bay today:
Mission Bay feels as if it escaped the economic downturn – stores are opening, buildings are going up, and young professionals are zipping out of $700,000 condos to get to work. Most live in a six-block area north of Mission Bay Creek. These pioneers say it’s now starting to feel like a place worth staying in on the weekends.
Of course those $700,000 condos might have been $800,000 condos last year as no San Francisco neighborhood has “escaped the economic downturn,” but the point about Mission Bay continuing to grow and evolve is sound.
∙ SocketSite Reader’s Report: Living In North Mission Bay (For Real) [SocketSite]
∙ Mission Bay becoming a real neighborhood [SFGate]
∙ An Overview Of Mission Bay [SocketSite]
The point is sound, but the article is sophomoric. However, it was great to hear that Toby Levine is alive and kicking…she’s one of my favorite people in SF.
[Editor’s Note: With respect to Toby Levine making the move two years ago: Why You Should Care About All Those New Developments (Part II).]
Development of the industrial-use buildings are far ahead of the residential and commercial sections. Once the retail corridor on 4th street starts to be alive and kicking, then the southern section will really start to awaken.
The whole China Basin / UCSF area is developing like crazy with multiple projects always under construction. Quite a huge improvement over what it used to be.
Only downside to success is that in a few years there will be no more parking, just like any other popular SF neighborhood.
There is tons of parking, at least in the South of Mission Creek area, and that will remain for the forseeable future. Not as much on street parking as I’d like to see though…but huge parking garages around UCSF. I think in the planners/developers infinite wisdom they’ve actually “overparked” the employment centers, despite the good transit access, resulting in the weird urban/suburban nature of Mission Bay.
I don’t know about north of Mission Creek. Obviously there’s good transit access, but what if you want to visit a friend on Berry street in the evening. Is there street or off-street parking available these days? Better or worse than other SF nabes? I’m only asking…have no real experience. I’m one of the old farts who still remembers driving to Club Townsend and parking anywhere….
I really enjoy Mission Creek Park … what a very nice, green open space with activities galore. They could probably use some additional bicycle parking if it becomes a better known spot for folks in Potrero/SOMA. Too bad it is so far away from all of the daycare centers in the Rincon Hill neighborhood (Marin Day School, etc.) …. maybe the block occupied by the Embarcadero Postal Center can work in a children’s playground of sorts for the kids (both residents’ and workers’ kids, that is)
How nice that people are building a brand new city, Mission Bay, CA, convenient if you are a student or involved with the new branch of UCSF.
It is very interesting that the new buildings feel just like the older part of UCSF. Not like med centers at Stanford or UC Davis or UCLA or UCSD.
The best thing is that the new city is very close to San Francisco, which guarantees its success.
The neighborhood has completely changed in the last 5 years, although the article has simplified things, it is now an area that is great to spend time in all week and weekends, especially if you have a dog! The only thing missing are a few more less expensive mid range eateries, with some diversity! It already has enough afterwork/ballgame bar/restaurants.
The title of this post is a little strange – is it supposed to be “Mission Bay Gets A Little More Grown Up Each And Every Day” – or – “Mission Bay Gets A Little More, Grows Up Each And Every Day” ??
Pardon my ignorance (if I am wrong) but isn’t that whole area around China Basin, Mission Bay built upon Landfills, and is as such subject to Liquifaction during an Earthquake ?
Considering that the City is right next to the longest fault in California ** (and one of the longest faults in North America), wouldn’t buying a place in this area be suicide ?
** Source = Nasa JPL.
You are correct Chad. The soil in this whole area is what’s known as Bay Mud. All the new buildings are build on piles drived down to bed rock, as much as 200′ deep.
“wouldn’t buying a place in this area be suicide ?”
Unlike the Marina District, which is also built on landfill, most of the buildings in Mission Bay are built on steel beams driven down into the bedrock. And at least one UCSF professor who lives and works in Mission Bay, and has written extensively about earthquake preparedness, considers Mission Bay to be safe (as discussed during a presentation he gave last year).
I’d much rather be on the top floor of a Mission Bay hirise than at street level in any pre-1970 midrise district when the Big One hits. The mission bay engineering seems quite sound.
Celtic – I think the editor is having a little fun with a scene from the film Swingers – where Vince Vaughn launches into a late-night drunken tirade for his buddy. Here’s the clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTPxEwfNTJc
@ Rogers, who says “one UCSF professor who lives and works in Mission Bay, and has written extensively about earthquake preparedness, considers Mission Bay to be safe”
So you want everyone to believe the word of 1 Professor ? Didn’t we do that with the Free Markets ? Didn’t we believe what 1 Fed Chariman, Alan Greenspan preached to us for nearly 40 years before admitting that he made a ‘Mistake‘.
Now look where that has landed us !
Chad, your comment was that living in Mission Bay was suicidal because of the risk posed by an earthquake. There is a lot of reporting available about the seismic construction standards used in Mission Bay, for example at http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2008/10/27/focus6.html . Any blog post should only be a starting point for anyone to do their own research. I would only ask in return that you offer some research which says that the construction in Mission Bay is suicidal simply because it’s in a liquifaction zone… and also why you don’t seem to extend the same critique to the Marina (or to the Financial District, or to the Sunset for its soft-sided construction, etc.).
Maybe I haven’t walked around the “right” part of Mission Bay. All the places that I have been felt kind of weird. The scale seemed to big with almost no street level shops or other places of interest.
Maybe it’s built for a large number of people that aren’t there yet and in time it will feel more comfortable.
Mission Bay is in a liquefaction zone and it will certainly get severely messed up in a quake.
But that is not the same as saying that it is unsafe. I doubt that there will be any life threatening building failures (and if there are then woe to the rest of the pre-1970s bay area because this means that the Big One was a Gigantic One). However do expect the streets to be buckled and useless and many of the buildings made inhabitable. Totaled, but not collapsed and therefore safe for evacuation.
Seismic building codes are targeted to protect lives first and foremost. Buildings that adhere to current codes have a much better chance of being left standing compared to those built to 1940 building codes. The code takes into account the geology of the built parcel so those built on Mission Bay are designed to withstand the sorts of movement expected in a liquefaction zone, i.e. they are anchored to bedrock and contain a lot more steel.
So you’re unlikely to die during a quake in Mission Bay. But your RE investment may go “poof”.
Quake risk is variable depending on location, geology, and construction style. The same goes for the fire risk resulting from a quake.
The data doesn’t seem to support the intuitive observation that building uninhabitability (red-tagging) increases in liquefaction hazard zones after an earthquake. See the ABAG study of Northridge and Loma Prieta at http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/liquefac/Lq_techC.PDF and http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/eqmaps/liquefac/buildings.html (Buildings are not consistently more likely to be damaged to the point of being uninhabitable in areas mapped as having high or very high liquefaction susceptibility than outside of those areas, given equivalent shaking intensities, although road-buckling and pipe breaks are greater).
Also, projected earthquake-related fatalities in Mission Bay compare favorably with other San Francisco neighborhoods (see page 37 of “San Francisco’s Earthquake Risk: Report on Potential Earthquake Impacts in San Francisco” at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/science/1906quake/atc-report.pdf
Mission Bay is a great place to be if you have a dog, own a bike, love to jog, like to sail, and enjoy fresh air and the parks. The best part about Mission Bay is the parks and private open space which are starting to link together nicely. Our household bought in liking the area but end up really loving it more than expected.
For now there is plenty of street parking on the eastern side, but expect this to quickly disappear when Mission Bay is half built out. Planners continue to push this area into a transit friendly zone. Case example is 3rd St where there is zero street parking and the many side streets where they have reduced parking to one lane instead of the traditional two lanes. Future parking are to be absorbed in the midrise parking structures being planned are already built for commercial and entertainment activities.
As for seismic activity, new construction are built to more stringent code requirements, which cause me to be less concern with building collaspe. My biggest risk is liquidfaction of roadways and damage to systems infrastructure
which can increase the Mission Bay Maintenance HOA cost and supplimental property tax shared by all Mission Bay residents. The “Poof” in property is most certainly a concern. But the Marina district gives me some hope as it bounced back quickly.
“The title of this post is a little strange – is it supposed to be “Mission Bay Gets A Little More Grown Up Each And Every Day” – or – “Mission Bay Gets A Little More, Grows Up Each And Every Day” ??”
Go watch the movie, “Swingers” with Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn. The title to this post will make sense after you watch it (hint: pay attention during the diner scene near the end).
By the way, mad props to SS for the reference. Love that movie.
Wasn’t there supposed to be a pedestrian bridge built across the creek at 5th street (in the photo)?